A New Age Adventure
by Caoimhe Rose
Summary: a fun story that has frodo, and gandalf schemeing against bilbo. balin has a small part, but bilbo enjoys being with his old friend. read then review!


**Hey! so this is a story that i had to write in grade eight for an independent book study that we were forced into doing :). luckily we were able to choose what book to do. i chose the Hobit, because i have read lord of the rings 1-3 and wanted to read this one. i didn't really know what to do, so this is what i came up with. sorry about the bad grammar and spelling mistakes, i had to do alot of rewriting because of many bad/stupid mistakes that i had done. so, read, relax, and RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREVIEW!**

A New Age Adventure (one shot)

One autumn evening some years afterwards Bilbo was sitting in his study writing his memoirs. He thought of calling them, "There and Back Again, a Hobbit's Holiday" when there was a ring at the door. It was Gandalf and a dwarf; the dwarf was Balin.

"Come in! Come in!" Bilbo said cheerfully. Soon they were settled in chairs by the fire. Balin noticed that Mr. Baggins' waistcoat was more extensive (and had real gold buttons) then when he last saw it. Bilbo also noticed that Balin's beard was several inches longer, and his jewelled belt was of greater magnificence.

They fell to talking of their times together, of course, and Bilbo asked how things were going in the lands of the Mountain. It seemed they were doing very well. Bard had rebuilt the town in Dale and men had gathered to him from the Lake, from South and West, all the valley had become tilled again and rich, and the desolation was now filled with birds, and blossoms in the spring and fruit and feasting in autumn. Laketown was refunded and was prosperous than ever, and much wealth went up and down the Running River; and there was friendship in those parts between elves, and dwarfs, and men.

The old Master had come to a bad end. Bard had given him much gold for the help for the Lake-people, but being of the kind that easily catches such diseases he fell under the dragonsickness, and took most of the gold and fled with it, and died of starvation in the Waste, deserted by his companions.

"The new Master is of wiser kind," said Balin. "and very popular, fore of course, he gets most of the credit for the present prosperity. They are making songs which say that in his day the river runs with gold."

"Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion!" said Bilbo.

"Of course!" said Gandalf. "And why should not they prove true? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!"

"Thank goodness!" said Bilbo laughing, and handed him the tobacco-jar.

After they each had taken a bit of tobacco, they sat around quietly thinking their own thoughts. Just as they all started to run out of tobacco, Bilbo jumped up excitedly.

Looking up at Bilbo, Gandalf asked, "What is it, my friend?"

"I am so tired of just staying in my hobbit-hole," answered Bilbo. "I want to see the mountains again, or go visit the Elven King in Mirkwood. I feel so bored, I want to have some excitement in my life, just like when we all went to burglarize Smaug."

Laughing, Balin asked, "So, are you saying that you would like to go and fight off all those gigantic spiders again?"

Bilbo looked at Balin as if he was a gigantic spider. Then he shook his head. All Bilbo wanted to do was visit the old friends that he had a made while traveling to the Lonely Mountain.

Turning to Gandalf, Balin asked, "Could we actually go and have more adventures? But wouldn't Bilbo have to get all of those dreaded relatives out of his house, like what happened when he had come back the first time?"

Gandalf answered, "There is a chance of that happening again, my dear Balin. But it is most likely that Bilbo would have to stay around the Shire, as to not arouse suspicion." Seeing the sad face on Bilbo, he continued, "Maybe you could have your adventures, but not leave the Shire and no one would be the wiser." Then he looked at Bilbo.

Bilbo was in deep thought. Gandalf poked him in the knee with his staff. Bilbo looked up, confused in what was happening.

Shaking his head, Gandalf said, "Bilbo, why do you go off in such deep thought?"

"Well," answered Bilbo, "I heard that the children had found a mysterious tree, which they say, takes you to the place that you most want to go." Shrugging, Bilbo continued. "Though, it sounds wonderful, where is it, I don't know. Also how can we know that the children aren't making up stories, like children like to do."

Gandalf smiled, with his pipe clenched between his teeth. "We will just have to assume that they are telling the truth." Then he puffed a smoke ring.

"Can we go and look for this, mysterious tree, anytime soon?" Balin asked.

"Why not?" asked Gandalf.

"Could we go and look for it now?" Bilbo asked. "If we hurry, then we could get back in time, so that we won't be late for supper, or the neighbours won't try and get into my house to steal things." Nodding his head, he continued. "They always want to get something that I have, that they think is theirs; when its really mine."

Gandalf nodded.

Then they all got up and went to the front entrance, where they got their cloaks. After closing the front door, the trio headed down the lane. The early evening, had all of the birds come out. The smell of pungent flowers and other sweet smelling things, was quite strong surprisingly, since it was early fall.

Finally they took a break by the side of the road. After getting settled, Balin was poked in the side, by Bilbo.

"What?" said a disgruntled Balin, who was enjoying the sweet smell of the air.

"Look," pointed Bilbo excitedly. "I believe that is the mysterious tree that the children have been telling everyone about."

"I believe that you are right." Both Balin and Bilbo looked into the forest. There somewhere in the forest, they could see and eerily light blue, glowing light.

Turning back to Gandalf, the pair poked him and told him that they saw the glowing of the mysterious tree. Then they got up and walked back to Bilbo's house. All the while Balin and Bilbo pestered Gandalf that he had to promise to go with them to the tree. Gandalf laughed at their pestering, and then agreed that yes, he would go with them to the tree to find out more about it.

When they finally got back to Bilbo's hobbit house, Gandalf decided that he would sleep in the living room, just in case something was going to happen. He didn't mention to anyone that he had a surprise visitor coming to see him late that night.

Turning to Bilbo, Balin asked, "Do you have an extra room? I need somewhere to stay, because I thought that this visit was only going to be for a day, not more than two or three."

"Sure, sure, my good fellow," Bilbo said cheerfully. "I don't mind. Here you can stay in this room." The room that Bilbo had given to Balin was beautiful; light blue with a light green trimming. Looking around, Balin said that it was perfect. Then Bilbo scuttled around getting some sheets and a cover for the bed, while Balin put his cloak and walking stick into the closet.

After saying goodnight to everyone, Bilbo settled down in his bed, and fell into a deep sleep.

The next day, he woke up to the smells of coffee brewing, and toast being more burnt then toasted. Walking into the kitchen, he found Gandalf and Balin busy making breakfast.

"What is all this?" Bilbo asked.

"Well, both of us appreciate that you have let us stay the night and so, we decided to make you breakfast." Balin replied. Then they all sat down to eat the breakfast that was prepared.

After breakfast, the three walked back to where Bilbo had first seen the mysterious tree. When they got back to the spot, the glowing was still visible from the road.

Looking at each other, they plunged into the forest. The forest around them was cool, and had a slight musty smell to it. They could see that the sun peeking through the leaves on the tops of the trees. But they continued to walk into the forest, in the direction of the glowing tree; finally, they reached it.

Standing in front of the tree, they were almost over powered by the glowing light that it produced. They could also tell that it was ancient. Then after looking at it for awhile, they started to climb all over it to see if they could find an opening. But they couldn't, so they decided to look at the bottom of the tree, by its roots.

There it was, the opening that most of the blue light was coming from. It was the perfect size for a child or two to sit in. Looking at each other in amazement, they couldn't figure out how this tree could be magical, except for the fact that it was a very good hiding place.

"Who is going in first?" asked Balin.

"I w-w-will." Bilbo stuttered.

Gandalf looked at him in amazement. "Are you sure that you want to do this?"

Bilbo nodded.

Now Bilbo was, not sure about this, even though he, himself volunteered for the job. What have you gotten yourself into this time? Bilbo asked himself. Why couldn't you just have stayed outside, where you could at least look at the outside of the tree.

Bilbo finally got into a comfortable position, when, all of a sudden he heard a voice, whispering his name.

"W-w-who is t-that?" Bilbo whispered aloud.

"You are safe, now just follow this light." And suddenly, a light appeared out of no where, Bilbo saw in his mind.

"What's going on?" replied Gandalf, from outside.

"There is a voice in here," said Bilbo, a bit muffly, "and it said to follow the light. Do you think that I should do that, Gandalf?"

"Well," replied Gandalf, "I think that would be a good idea."

"WHAT!!!!!!" squeaked Bilbo, "I thought that you might tell me not to go into the light."

"Just continue to do what the voice says." Was the answer.

**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&** **out side the tree** **&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**&&**

Gandalf turned to Balin. "Last night, when you and Mr. Baggins here, was asleep, Frodo Baggins, Bilbo's nephew came to his house. I told him about how you and Bilbo wanted to find that tree that the children of the village are always talking about."

"What does that have to do with the voice in there?" asked Balin curiously.

"Well, Frodo, said that the tree had no magic powers at all, and the glowing is some natural thing that this particular tree does. It only glows when the sun is shining on it, no matter which direction, that its shining from." Gandalf continued. "The children say that it has magical powers, because they use their imaginations in it and the walls of the cave, which Bilbo is in right now, are flat, which the children use to imagine their dreams on."

"This is all very interesting, but, how does this relate to the voice that Bilbo is hearing?" Balin asked again, frustrated.

"My dear Balin," said Gandalf, with flourish. "When you are in a cave, and you need to talk to somebody who is below you, don't you just talk in a normal voice, and the other person can hear what you are saying. Quite clearly, I imagine, right?"

"Yes."

"So in this cave, there is a slight shelf that Frodo, told me about. If you sit on it, and somebody else comes in, they don't see you." Gandalf explained. "Right now Frodo is on that shelf and is trying to make his uncle very confused. Then when the moment is just right, Frodo is going to scramble over Bilbo so that he feels that something else was in there, with him. Knowing Bilbo, he will try to grab the thing and hang on to it for all he's worth. Frodo is going to pull Bilbo out of the cave, and then Bilbo will see who the mysterious voice belongs to." Chuckling, Gandalf added. "Everyone needs a bit of a surprise every once in awhile; even our friend Bilbo."

Meanwhile, in the cave, Gandalf's and Frodo's plan was working very nicely. Frodo was very much enjoying himself. It isn't everyday that you get to mix-up your favourite uncle this much.

"Okay, now go into the light." Frodo directed.

Bilbo had now crawled into all of the walls, and was starting to get slightly suspicious of this voice. My that voice sounds familiar, mused Bilbo to himself. Now whose can that be? No matter how hard Bilbo searched his memory, he just couldn't find a face to the voice.

"OUCH!" Bilbo had just smacked the top of his head on the wall. "Man, I wish that the children had told everybody about the voice, too. If I had known that I was going to be getting clobbered by the time I get out of here."

Frodo had been listening quietly the whole time Bilbo had said that. He chuckled quietly.

Bilbo, heard that chuckle. "Okay, what was that?" Turning on his heels, Bilbo tried to find the other person or creature that was in there with him.

Frodo decided that he was going to finish the plan, a bit before schedual, since he really wanted to see the look on his Uncle Bilbo's face when he pulled him out.

So Frodo quietly slid off the ledge, and got onto his hands and knees. Quickly he crawled across the floor of the cave, brushing Bilbo as he excited.

"Yipes!" Bilbo squeaked, and threw out his arms to see if he could stop the creature from escaping. He got his arms around, what he thought was the waist of the creature, when he actually did get them around the waist of Frodo.

Suddenly, Bilbo found himself being pulled out of the cave and into the bright sunshine. Looking around, he saw Balin, Gandalf, and low and behold, his nephew Frodo Baggins.

"Frodo!" Bilbo put his arms around him in a hug.

"Uncle Bilbo," said Frodo, returning the hug. "I am so glad to see you."

Then Bilbo realized something. Looking around, at everyone, he said in astonishment, "You were all in this together, right?"

Balin quickly said that he had nothing to do with this, since he had just been let into the plan, just moments before. Gandalf admitted that he had gotten Frodo to go with the plan. Frodo finished off admitting, when he said that it was a lot of fun, and the face that Uncle Bilbo had made, was one of the funniest that he had seen, in a long time.

After this, the foursome headed back to Bilbo's to have a nice cup of tea. Bilbo said that he wouldn't go back into that tree, even if anybody paid him one-hundred dollars. Everybody laughed at this final statement.

**so, what did you think? i hope that you enjoyed reading it!**

**Read+Thoughts/Encouragement/Support=Review/Better Stories!**

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